20 Years of Software Development: What We've Learned About User Feedback
After nearly two decades of building software platforms that serve over 135,000 users, we've learned invaluable lessons about collecting and acting on user feedback. Here's what we wish we'd known from the start.
When we started BPS Designs in 2005, we thought we knew everything about building software. We had the technical skills, the passion, and the drive to create amazing products. What we didn't fully understand was how crucial user feedback would become to our success.
Nearly 20 years later, having built platforms that serve over 135,000 users and process more than £250 million in invoices, we've just launched FeedbackNexus - our own feedback management platform. After two decades of struggling with existing tools and cobbling together our own solutions, we finally built the platform we always wished existed.
Here are the hard-won lessons about user feedback that led us to create FeedbackNexus, and what we wish we'd known from the beginning.
The Early Days: Building in a Vacuum
In our early years, we made the classic mistake that many developers make: we built what we thought users needed, not what they actually needed. We'd spend months perfecting features that seemed logical to us, only to discover that users either didn't use them or used them in completely unexpected ways.
Our first major platform was SwimClub Manager, a comprehensive system for managing swimming club operations. We spent weeks building what we thought swimming clubs would need - member registration, training schedules, competition tracking, and payment management. When we delivered it, the client looked at it and said, "This is nice, but we really just needed a simple way to track who's paid their membership fees and when they last attended."
Key Lesson #1
Assumptions are the enemy of good software
The Feedback Revolution
Everything changed when we started actively seeking user feedback. Not just bug reports or feature requests, but deep conversations about how people actually used our software in their daily work.
We discovered that users had developed workarounds for problems we didn't even know existed. They were using features in ways we never intended, often more cleverly than we had designed them. Most importantly, they had insights into their own workflows that we, as outsiders, could never have imagined.
What We Learned About Collecting Feedback
Over the years, we've tried every method of collecting feedback imaginable:
| Method | Response Rate | Detail Level | Time Investment | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Email Surveys | Low | High | Medium | Detailed insights |
| In-app Widgets | High | Medium | Low | Quick feedback |
| User Interviews | Medium | Very High | High | Deep understanding |
| Support Tickets | High | High | Medium | Problem identification |
| Usage Analytics | Automatic | Medium | Low | Behaviour patterns |
Key Insight
No single method is enough. You need multiple channels to get a complete picture of your users' experience.
The Challenge of Scale
As our platforms grew from hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands of users, managing feedback became exponentially more complex. What worked when we had 100 users completely broke down when we had 10,000.
We were drowning in feedback. Support tickets, feature requests, bug reports, and general comments were coming in faster than we could process them. We needed a systematic approach.
The Birth of Our Feedback Framework
Out of necessity, we developed a framework that we still use today:
Categorise Everything
Is this a bug, feature request, or general feedback? Proper categorisation is the foundation of effective feedback management.
Prioritise by Impact
How many users does this affect? Focus on feedback that impacts the largest number of users or your most valuable customers.
Consider Effort vs. Value
What's the development cost vs. user benefit? Not all feedback is worth implementing - balance effort with impact.
Look for Patterns
Are multiple users asking for the same thing? Individual requests might be outliers, but patterns reveal real needs.
Close the Loop
Always tell users what you've done with their feedback. This builds trust and encourages more valuable input.
Framework Impact
This framework became the foundation for what would eventually become FeedbackNexus.
The AI Revolution
In recent years, artificial intelligence has transformed how we handle feedback. What once required hours of manual categorisation and analysis can now be done in seconds.
AI helps us:
- Automatically categorise feedback by type and urgency
- Detect sentiment to identify frustrated users quickly
- Find duplicate requests even when they're worded differently
- Identify trends across thousands of pieces of feedback
- Prioritise features based on actual user impact
But here's the crucial point: AI doesn't replace human judgment; it enhances it. The technology helps us process and understand feedback at scale, but the decisions about what to build still require human insight and empathy.
Lessons for Modern Software Teams
After 20 years and 135,000+ users, here are the most important lessons we've learned about user feedback:
1. Start Collecting Feedback from Day One
Don't wait until you have thousands of users. Even with just a handful of early adopters, their feedback will be invaluable in shaping your product's direction.
2. Make Feedback Easy to Give
The easier it is for users to share feedback, the more you'll receive. But balance ease with quality – you want feedback that's actionable, not just noise.
3. Respond to Everything
Even if you can't implement every suggestion, acknowledge every piece of feedback. Users who feel heard are more likely to remain loyal customers.
4. Look for Patterns, Not Individual Requests
One user asking for a feature might be an outlier. Ten users asking for the same thing (even in different words) is a pattern worth investigating.
5. Measure Impact, Not Just Volume
A feature requested by 100 casual users might be less important than one requested by 10 power users who generate significant revenue.
6. Use Technology to Scale Human Insight
AI and automation can help you process feedback at scale, but they should amplify human decision-making, not replace it.
Why We Recently Built FeedbackNexus
After 20 years of managing feedback across multiple platforms, we decided it was time to find a better solution. We tried every major feedback management platform on the market - from simple survey tools to enterprise-grade systems. Each had pieces of what we needed, but none delivered the complete solution we were looking for.
Some were great at collecting feedback but terrible at analysis. Others had powerful analytics but made it difficult for users to actually submit feedback. Many required complex integrations or lacked the AI capabilities we knew were essential for handling feedback at scale.
So we did what we've always done when existing solutions don't meet our needs: we built our own.
FeedbackNexus represents everything we've learned about feedback management over two decades, combined with modern AI capabilities and a user experience that actually makes sense. It's the platform we wish we'd had from the beginning.
FeedbackNexus helps teams:
- Collect feedback from multiple channels in one place
- Automatically categorise and prioritise using AI
- Identify trends and patterns across thousands of data points
- Close the feedback loop with users
- Make data-driven decisions about product development
The Future of Feedback
Looking ahead, we believe feedback management will become even more sophisticated. AI will get better at understanding context and nuance. Integration with development tools will make it easier to turn feedback into features. And most importantly, the feedback loop between users and developers will continue to tighten.
But the fundamental truth remains the same: great software is built by listening to users. The tools and techniques may evolve, but the core principle never changes.
Start Your Feedback Journey
Whether you're a solo developer or part of a large team, it's never too early (or too late) to start taking user feedback seriously. The lessons we've learned over 20 years can help you avoid the mistakes we made and build better software faster.
If you're ready to transform how you handle user feedback, we'd love to show you what we've built. Start your free trial of FeedbackNexus and see how 20 years of experience can help your team build better products.
Have questions about feedback management or want to share your own experiences? We'd love to hear from you. Get in touch with our team – after all, we practice what we preach when it comes to listening to our users.